1
Mackinaw State Forest - Gaylord Unit
Managed by Michigan Department of Natural Resources
7,125 acres6.5 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
Outdoors · McKinley
McKinley, MI parks, trails & bike paths
About 13% of McKinley is conserved land, roughly 2,993 acres. There are about 23 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Mackinaw State Forest - Gaylord Unit (6.5 mi) and University of Michigan Biological Station (5.5 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in McKinley, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
McKinley outdoors
Conserved land
13%
2,993 of 22,360 acres
Trails
23 mi
0.7 mi per sq mi · 6 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
5
2,306 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
6.0 mi
0.0 mi lanes · 6.0 mi off-road paths
Conserved land is a share of the whole town area. Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Map
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number or a place below to zoom in© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk
Parks & preserves with trails
Ranked by mapped trail miles. Directions go to the nearest marked trailhead or public parking.
2
University of Michigan Biological Station
Nature preserve
2,873 acres5.5 mi of trail
East Branch Trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
3
Bryan Wildlife Nature Preserve
Nature preserve
167 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
4
Mckinley Township Park
Park
8 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Who protects the land
2,993 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes0.0 mi
- Off-road bike paths6.0 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Baseball2
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Nearby
McKinley and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| McKinley | 13.4% | 22.8 mi | 5 |
| Center | 0.5% | 12.0 mi | 4 |
| Carp Lake | 1.2% | 13.1 mi | 6 |
| Maple River | 3.6% | 13.8 mi | 7 |
| Munro | 20.2% | 31.9 mi | 7 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about McKinley's trails yet. Muddy, icy, a bridge out, where to park: a quick post helps the next person.
Sources: trails, parks, preserves, courts and bike lanes © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), map data as of 2026-09-28. Conserved land: USGS Gap Analysis Project, Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US). Measured against the Census town boundary.
How we measure
"Trails" are OpenStreetMap paths, bridleways, public tracks and unpaved footways, plus footways inside a park or preserve or on a named trail route. Sidewalks are left out. Areas are counted on a 20-meter grid, so overlapping parcels count once. "Conserved" includes conservation easements, which protect land from development but are usually private property. Trailheads are the nearest marked trailhead, public parking lot or information board within about 150 meters of a preserve. Dog rules come from OpenStreetMap when someone has tagged them; otherwise we show what's typical for the land manager, or say the rules aren't recorded.